Maker of expensive printer ink HP has announced the new Slate 2 tablet with the Windows 7 OS. The Slate 2 tablet will have a 8.9-inch capacitive touch display and will be targeted at businesses.

It will be based around Intel's Atom Z670 processor and have a starting price of $699. It will have just 32GB storage but have Wi-Fi and Windows 7 Home Premium.

The Slate 2 will become available worldwide later this month. The tablet is a revamp of the Slate 500 tablet and there is no mention of the TouchPad and Palm smartphones with WebOS.

It is a stop gap bit of hardware. Most of HP's plans revolve around Windows 8, and the company will release a Windows 8 tablet in the future. It does not look as if the Slate 2 will be upgradable to Windows 8.

The Slate 2 can be used to access corporate documents or take notes through stylus input there is an optional external keyboard which means that the device can double up as a very very slow PC. The single-core Atom Z670, which runs at a clock speed of 1.5GHz and it will have accelerators to decode 1080p video.